What are the skills I’ll need to become a mortgage broker?

If you’re looking for a career pathway with lots of rewards, being a successful mortgage broker brings these in spades.

It does, however, take a while to carve out a successful career for yourself. When you become a mortgage broker, you’ll be launching yourself into a career built on expertise. This needs to be honed over time if you want to be the best of the best.

Let’s dive deep into the mortgage broker skills you’ll need to focus on to propel your career to greater heights.

Building your mortgage broker skillset

Mortgage broking is more than a job, it’s a skill set.

These abilities are built on experience, planning, learning, and repetition.

You won’t be the master of this in a few hours, weeks, or months.

Be patient and approach your new career with a learning mindset: soak up everything you can, as often as you can!

The importance of this cannot be understated. When setting up a new broker business, it can be easy to overlook your personal development and put all your efforts into chasing new clients. Rookie error!

There are always resources on hand that you can leverage to amplify your expertise, such as articles you can read and training modules you can enrol in.

“One of the biggest development opportunities you should focus on in your first twelve months of becoming a broker is developing your people skills.When you first start out, you might write 30 loans out of every 100 clients you see.If your aim is to write 90 out of every 100, then you need to work on being someone who people feel comfortable working with, because you’re their main point of contact and support.You’ll need to make sure you come across as personable and approachable. This is a real skill, and it takes time to refine. Don’t get too caught up in the nitty-gritty of policy without focusing on your people skills, or you could lose customers in the long term.”

Grant Arbuckle, GA Finance

The power of effective communication

If you want to thrive in the broking industry, you’ll need to really work on honing your prowess with communication.

Mortgage broking is a customer-focused venture, so effective communication is a fundamental part of your every day.

The home buying process can be extremely stressful for your clients, so you’re going to need to think about ways you can be friendly, reassuring, and informative if you’re going to operate a successful business.

You’ll also need to think about ways you’re going to be transparent with your clients. For example, you’re going to have to explain how you earn your fees. You’ll need to be persistent if you want to retain your clients in the long haul, with regular follow-ups after settlement, to make sure your clients are happy.

“Initiative means being able to think a few steps ahead, as in our industry certain things happen at certain times and you’ll need to be prepared for them

Developing advanced communication skills, and really honing on how you’re going to be as approachable as you can, because that’s what you’ll be doing every day. You need to learn to master being firm, positive, and optimistic with what you say and when. Don’t communicate in a way that is dark and gloomy.”

Joshua De Buelle, FiNEXT

It’s time to think about…

Some qualities you’re going to need to focus on to be a successful broker:

• Adapting to new technologies;
• Honing your attention to detail;
• Keeping up to date with industry trends;
• Carving out time to network;
• Find ways to manage your time;
• Grow your problem-solving and critical thinking skills;
• Think about how you’re going to manage your data.

“Brokers need to put in the hours and dedicate time to training and professional development. If you can’t answer a question from a customer sitting in front of you because you simply don’t know the answer, then you have just lost their trust. They won’t do business with you. You need to be able to know what you are doing. You need to know your stuff and know your market.” Nathan Aird, Universal Mortgage Experts